If you live in Taiwan, you should know that, Sony Ericsson is opening a new flagship store in Taiwan (Grand opening will be tomorrow, on the 10th of May).
Besides of this beautiful store, the interesting thing is the board with a list of the Sony Ericsson device prefix explanation.
From this listing we can learn the meaning of the several prefixes. It looks like that a prefix "G" (If you remember, it's a recently announced line-up of the Sony Ericsson's new devices. The G series were opened with couple of UIQ smartphones: Sony Ericsson G700 and Sony Ericsson G900) means "Generation Web" and as you already know, it contains not only smartphones, but usual phones with enhanced capabilities for Internet usage (Like, recently announced Sony Ericsson G502). The explanation of the "P" is "Pro" (Frankly, I always thought that the meaning of the "P" was PDA :D looks like it's a new meaning) and good news is that there gonna be new devices from P series and it will not be replaced with X series.
What means prefix "X", I guess everybody already knows, it's a high-end "XPERIA" branded line-up with most awaited, Windows Mobile based - Sony Ericsson X1. Prefix "R" means Radio line-up with enhanced Radio capabilities, "W" means old and kind "Walkman" branded line-up and "C" is a new line-up of the famous "Cyber-Shot", C series were opened with couple of new handsets - Sony Ericsson C702 and C905. Prefix "S" has a new meaning "Snapshot" (Old was "Slider"). "T" is a "Style" line, and at last the new prefix "F".
Depending on this list, unannounced prefix "F" means "FUN" and looks like its opening expected in June on the Singapore event, but what exactly means FUN for Sony Ericsson I don't know. Maybe it's a combination of the music, photo shooting/video recording and web browsing, or maybe it's even gaming? Maybe it's an upcoming gaming platform like Nokia's "N-gage" or even long awaited PSP Phone (Or PSPhone)... Hmmm, I don't know :) I guess we need to wait and see...
Anyway, for me, new brand names and new series are only welcome (especially from Sony Ericsson), because it brings some novelties and the novelties is what we always need.
It looks like Nokia is watching for rumors about Sony Ericsson's PSP Phone (Or PSPhone) and looks like they have some doubts about Sony Ericsson’s ability to produce a gaming handset.
Nokia games boss Jaakko Kaidesoja at an N-Gage press event in Lapland said:
"I'm not scared about anybody," - "The real question is how do they do it? Can they create a link between the PSP games and a phone? Can they do the multiplayer and online stuff? We've been doing this for two years and it hasn't been easy."
I think realization of the PSPhone is under a big question mark, but it seems that Nokia looks at it in another way, or why to loose time for comments like this? And maybe it's not easy for Nokia, but for SONY? I don't think so :) The matter is that, if PSPhone will be released, first strike will be on Nokia's N-Gage platform. But while we are reading yet another rumors about PSPhone, meanwhile, Nokia is preparing to commercially release the new N-Gage application for its N82 and N95 handsets, adding it to the N81.
On January 6, 2008, Sony Ericsson announced the new W760 Walkman® mobile phone - the eighth Sony Ericsson phone to support the Mobile Services Architecture (MSA) umbrella tandard (JSR 248). This tri-band HSDPA slider-style phone features music management with Shake Control and track discovery using TrackID™, 3D gaming boosted by an accelerometer and A/B buttons, and assisted GPS.
MSA can now be found in eight Sony Ericsson phone series - the K630, K660, K850, V640, W760, W890, W910 and Z750 – giving developers a range of Java™ ME programming features including instant messaging/chat and presence based functionality, handling banking, payment transactions, user identification and authentication through secure encryption technology.
W760 in more detail The W760 Walkman phone has a raft of entertainment options. The Walkman player 3.0 supports a range of audio formats, the SensMe™ feature automatically plots music by tempo and mood, and playlists can be navigated using the Shake Control to skip and shuffle tracks by shaking the phone.
The TrackID music recognition service has proven to be a popular feature of Sony Ericsson Walkman mobile phones – over 125,000 hits per day - and is included in the W760, enabling end-users to identify tracks playing on the inbuilt FM radio or through an external source.
Assisted GPS The W760 has an inbuilt GPS receiver and comes preloaded with navigation applications for example Wayfinder Navigator and Google Maps for Mobile. There is also a GPS-supported fitness application called Tracker to inform you how far and fast you have been walking/running. Gaming using JSR 256, Mobile Sensor API for accelerometer applications The W760 supports the Mobile Sensor API (JSR 256), a non-mandated MSA JSR, and comes preloaded with EA Games' Need for Speed™ ProStreet™ game. This Mascot Capsule v3 game uses JSR 256 to detect movement in the orientation of the phone and translates this input to controlling the car in the driving game.
Past couple of days new rumors and conceptual works of Sony Ericsson's one of the most awaited gaming handset - PlayStation Phonehave hit the internet.
However, Sony Ericsson hasn't even announced this handset yet. I said announced? There wasn't even serious talk about integration of this brand in handsets and I guess there will be nothing about the PSPhone in the nearest future. But in spite of this, people are still actively talking and writing about this device and making some concepts, and to be honest, some of them are really stylish and cool.
In addition to the a pleasant appearance, this concept has a dual slider form-factor with a huge display combined with sufficiently convenient navigation for gameplay.
Another well done job is from sealover.
With this concept he offers brand new and little bit unusual form-factor for a mobile phone with a huge display.
All those nice concepts are good, but all this activity was crowned with a shot of UK's Stuff Magazine article, which is featuring sufficiently realistic looking PlayStation branded handset.
I don't know if it is a real PSPhone or just a good looking fake, but there are considerably different opinions about this screen shot. I can say only thing: It's too good to be true :)
The fact is that there is nothing about PSPhone from official sources. I don't think that Sony Ericsson is going to introduce or announce anything in this year, so we have only to wait and see.
No doubt Apple with its iPhone has totally changed the situation in the cell phone market and the whole industry. The other manufacturers have experienced serious pressure from Apple and are implementing their own counter measures.
In business, using a well-established brand is almost always accompanied with a serious risk of damaging that brand. A company may spend tens of years on building the brand and then a single wrong decision may totally ruin it. So far the Japanese-Swedish giant has been quite successful in using well-established brands for its mobile phones. CyberShot and Walkman are good examples.
Walkman and CyberShot have been implemented into music and photo-enabled phones. A mobile phone branded with the popular Bravia line of televisions is under production already. According to the company, the phone must deliver exceptional TV experience. It is known that SonyEricsson is considering building a PlayStation branded phone as well.
If we look at the branding strategy carefully, we may notice that the PlayStation Phone may prove to be a start of problems for SonyEricsson. Both Cybershot and Walkman have successfully implemented their mission. The former doubles as an excellent digital camera, while the latter is a great music gadget. I believe the Bravia phone will deliver the same level of TV experience. However, I have serious doubts about the PlayStation branded phone. And this is why.
I have not met a person so far who has enjoyed playing games on a cell phone. Both Nokia N93 and Nokia N95 deliver very good gaming experience. However, playing on them does not deliver a fraction of the pleasure that you can get by playing on Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP). And there are several objectives reasons for being so. First and the most important is that it is extremely difficult to put high performance hardware in a form-factor of a modern cell phone. Though, this is not a mission-impossible. However, even if SonyEricsson manages to put the best hardware in a small device, being small is a problem itself. Yes, an advantage becomes a disadvantage. Why do most people love their PSPs? Yes yes, because of the large and gorgeous display. PSP is an amazing device but its beauty lies in its fantastic screen. It even beats DS' double screen.
But these are assumptions only. We may not see the PlayStation Phone at all. All we can do is just to wait and see what happens.
Besides of this beautiful store, the interesting thing is the board with a list of the Sony Ericsson device prefix explanation.
From this listing we can learn the meaning of the several prefixes. It looks like that a prefix "G" (If you remember, it's a recently announced line-up of the Sony Ericsson's new devices. The G series were opened with couple of UIQ smartphones: Sony Ericsson G700 and Sony Ericsson G900) means "Generation Web" and as you already know, it contains not only smartphones, but usual phones with enhanced capabilities for Internet usage (Like, recently announced Sony Ericsson G502). The explanation of the "P" is "Pro" (Frankly, I always thought that the meaning of the "P" was PDA :D looks like it's a new meaning) and good news is that there gonna be new devices from P series and it will not be replaced with X series.
On January 6, 2008, Sony Ericsson announced the new W760 Walkman® mobile phone - the eighth Sony Ericsson phone to support the Mobile Services Architecture (MSA) umbrella tandard (JSR 248). This tri-band HSDPA slider-style phone features music management with Shake Control and track discovery using TrackID™, 3D gaming boosted by an accelerometer and A/B buttons, and assisted GPS.
Gaming using JSR 256, Mobile Sensor API for accelerometer applications
